Time Flies

  When you don't hear from me in a while it is safe to assume life is just a little bit extra busy and I am feeling overwhelmed. Here are some of the things adding extra load to my days:

Peri Brynn's birthday was October 10th. She turned 5 years old. I managed to not shed a single tear that day, but it still hurt terribly and my mood suffered for many, many days. Five years since we accepted her referral. Five years since I headed to Guatemala and held my 6 day old daughter in my arms. I feel completely defeated and devastated. Yes, there is hope now, and things actually look much better. We may actually be bringing her home....some day.

Seth has started a new type of therapy. Two hours one-on-one every Monday afternoon. This is a combo of ABA (Behavioral therapy) and attachment therapy. He has gone twice and we are starting to see some big emotions surfacing. I have to be super-vigilant and watch his facial expressions and actions very carefully. As soon as they begin to show I need to be right on him, helping him with them and getting him to let them out. It's exhausting.

Halloween - I have always LOVED this holiday! I love to be scared, I love to dress up, I love CANDY! Yes, I am just a big kid. But, for my little guys, this is a horrible time of year. This year I am doing things a little differently. We are making home-made costumes. I have talked and talked about the scary costumes and what they actually represent. We have visited the costume aisle many times to explore how the scary things are just plastic and rubber and make believe. We have now gotten to the point Ahren doesn't scream bloody murder the second he sees a Halloween decoration. I think we are going to do the neighborhood church Trunk-or-Treat. Only non-scary costumes allowed.

It is a daily balance to keep Ahren from getting constipated. Add to that the fact that he has been on 2 rounds of antibiotics which give him liquid stools and you have potty disaster looming. Our school has been awesome. Each day they take him to the nurses office twice a day to potty, then communicate to me what the 'outcome' was. I adjust fiber and meds accordingly each night. I also give Probiotics during and after each round of antibiotics.  Recently a friend told me that Zinc helped her son with his oral hypotonia, so I have also added Zinc daily. Oh, and he was diagnosed with Asthma and is using a daily inhaler-type med. He still wheezes first thing in the morning, but the rest of the day is much better.

Levi - this boy is amazing. He is reading at 250 wpm and comprehending it. I spent an hour with his teacher the other day and she told me she has never had a second grader who could read like this.  They have set up a program where he is pulled out of class every morning and sent to a special reading program where he is doing 4th and 5th grade work. He loves it and it helps him keep from getting bored. They had a big assignment for the month of October. They had to read a book, do a report and make a hat that represented the book to wear in a parade around the school. He picked the true story of the sinking of the Titanic. He ended up reading 2 books on it and doing research on the computer. He designed his hat and we helped him make it. The hat ended up 2 feet tall and was the prow of the boat sinking into the water after the ship broke apart. His report had actual photos of the survivors in Lifeboat #6 as they were rescued by The Carpathia. And yet, getting him to sit down and do his homework every night is a huge battle.

Work - oh my how I LOVE those kids I work with. I know I am not supposed to have favorites, but heck! There is one special little blue-eyed blonde headed sweetie who has totally stolen my heart. When I first met him he never smiled, never laughed and seemed totally disconnected from the world. His mama is absolutely an amazing Mama-Warrior and works tirelessly to heal her child. In a matter of months, he has become a smiling, laughing and yes TALKING little boy. He is now mis-behaving and understands what he is doing. (You should see the sly little glance and smile he gives as he does what he knows he isn't supposed to) He also is showing his own sense of humor, pulling little jokes and laughing at them. I look forward to working with him every week. There are many other patients I adore and am challenged by. The range of patients I see is so wide and varied. Grown-ups with traumatic brain injuries, children with cerebral palsy, kids with dyslexia, and on and on. I receive advanced training every Wednesday morning for 3 hours and have learned so much. We coordinate with other therapists, too, OTs and PTs and ABA's. We design our therapies to synergize with theirs. It takes a lot of effort to pull it all together but it is so worth it and so much more effective. I still have a huge soft spot for kids on the spectrum.  Seeing them bloom is the most rewarding thing ever, and knowing that I might have played a tiny part in that is amazing.

Just so no one feels left out, Kaytee and Ashley are awesome, beautiful, independent women and I fear for the men that fall in love with them. It is not easy to keep up with those girls! They are too smart, too driven and too focused to make life easy for a man. I am loving it!!!!!! I don't think their Step-Daddy is going to have to 'clean his guns' for these girls.

Oh, and for my sweet hubby, who I am still crazy in love with. I love you more than CHEESE!